Today is Memorial Day in the U.S.A. A federal holiday, it is observed on the

last Monday of May. Begun as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation after the

American Civil War, today it commemorates all U.S. soldiers who died while in the military service.

Newly crowned American Idol Scotty McCreery is honored in a parade at Disney's

Hollywood Studios in Florida. The 17-year-old singer from North Carolina meets and greets his

fans in front of The American Idol Experience attraction and performs his new song "I Love You This Big."

A male baby mandrill is born to first-time mother Kelley at Disney’s Animal

Kingdom. Native to Africa, mandrills are among the largest species of monkey in the world and are

considered endangered. With the new baby, the number of mandrills that make their home at Disney’s Animal

Kingdom has grown to 12.

1958:

Walt Disney uses the cast of his new TV series Zorro for the

second of a 3-day cross promotion with live appearances at

Disneyland. In addition to parades each day, the stars - Guy

Williams, Henry Calvin, Gene Sheldon and Britt Lomond -

also appear in four live daily shows. Three of the shows feature a

running battle between Zorro and Monastario on the rooftops of Frontierland, with

his foes ending up in the river. The fourth show each day is held in Frontierland's Magnolia Park, with Williams appearing as Don Diego. (The reaction will be so positive that a third series of appearances

Mel Blanc, "The Man of a 1000 Voices," is born in San Francisco, California.

Famous for his work at Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera, Blanc supplied the hiccup sound effect for Disney's 1940 Pinocchio and voiced Raja the Tiger for Disney's 1960 Goliath II. He also voiced Cousin Orville for Walt Disney World's Carousel of Progress and occasionally took part in early Disney radio projects such as The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air. (Blanc is best known as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, and hundreds of other cartoon favorites and is still regarded as one of the most

The Disney/Pixar animated feature Finding Nemo is generally released. The underwater adventure, directed by Andrew Stanton, features the voices of Alexander Gould as Nemo, Albert Brooks as Marlin, Willem Dafoe as Gill, Ellen DeGeneres as Dory, and John Ratzenberger as Fish School.

The Disney Channel debuts the That's So Raven episode "Driven to Insanity."

Marlin: "Now, what's the one thing we have to remember about the ocean?"

Nemo: "It's not safe."

Marlin: "That's my boy."

"If I'm truly tracing the earliest inspiration I had for Nemo, it would be going to the dentist when I was a little boy. He had a fish tank in the wall, and I would stare forever at the fish wondering what they must think of humans looking at each other's teeth." -Andrew Stanton